These days it seems that everywhere you look people are combining many activities into one. We drive and talk on the phone; we work while eating lunch. From this, it appears that we are the ultimate multi-taskers. The thing is, with all this mundane multi-tasking, it is definitely easier to aimlessly run through life rather than to actually living in the moment. Lucky for us, George Murray in his latest collection of poetry, the rush to here, seeks to explore the ideas of time and human nature in a way that is vivid, stripped down and frank. The language that he uses is a beautiful mixture of the colloquial and the literary, like in “Rearview Mirror” when hair and scarves are going “shitcrazy” from the wind (10). Besides the concrete language he employs, his poems take the shape of short, sonnet-like forms that work perfectly to capture exactly the image and moment Murray was going for. For instance, in “Truck Stop Gothic,” the speaker recalls a past job as a cook at some greasy spoon when he sliced the head of a fly and went back to making sandwiches without hesitation. Throughout George Murray’s the rush to here, there are moments and images that many people can relate to making it a great book for anyone to pick up for themselves or a friend.

JIVE Magazine Rating: 5 powerful ending couplets out of 5.

About the Author: George Murray has written four works of poetry, including The Hunter (McClelland & Stewart, 2003). His criticism has been published all over the world and he is the winner of many prestigious awards, including the 2003 New York Festivals Radio and Television Gold Medal for Best Writing for one of his poems. He lives in St. John’s Newfoundland, Canada.

Sites worth checking out:

Nightwood Editions
George Murray